University of Exeter research is being used to enhance the world’s only annual sustainability tourism and events benchmark since 2025. The GDS-Index Systems Map shows destinations how specific actions may create knock-on effects across environmental, social, supplier and destination management areas, empowering cities to make more effective decisions for a more sustainable visitor economy.
The 2025 GDS-Index Report marks a decade of progress as destinations worldwide accelerate climate action and sustainability efforts, and reveals a 31% increase in average performance across all participating destinations since the programme began. This year’s theme, Shifting Tides, reflects a period of global transition during which destinations demonstrate remarkable resilience and accelerated action.
From Meetings International: The Global Destination Sustainability Movement (GDSM) has announced the top five finalists for this year’s GDS-Index, which ranks the sustainability efforts of over 100 destinations worldwide. Gothenburg, ranked number one since 2016, is once again a finalist. The final ranking will be announced on 16 October in Bruges. Peter Grönberg, CEO of…
We’ll unpack destination sustainability trends based on the 2022 GDS-Index benchmarking results, and introduce you to this year’s winners of the Leadership, Most Improved, and Innovation awards. Come celebrate the organisations that benchmarked, discover emerging industry trends and get to know the sustainability stories of the shining stars who clinched this year’s GDS-Awards.
In this dynamic and fun session, eight DMO/CVB leaders from around the world will share how they are implementing sustainability in their destination. They will focus on specific areas highlighting their challenges, opportunities and how they are innovating to drive destination performance and competitiveness.
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